Crikey, the meal from the chippy last night, Haddock for Ian, mixed kebab for me and large chips, so much food for just the two of us. We struggled and I mean really struggled to eat all the meal and gave up as a bad job. We should have split the kebab in half and ordered regular chips. We will know next time that's for sure. It was all quite delicious though and I would highly recommend this takeaway.
Such an early getaway, silly time really, well at 7.30am it was still semi-dark. And the boat facing us had the tunnel light glaring, must have been on all night as there was no sign of life as we crept past.
Why oh why we set off so early? For some reason, we thought it would take much longer to reach our planned stop. As it was and although most of the locks were against and needed filling, we made it to Fradley before 9 am.
Lock volunteers were on three of the Fradleys locks which made life so much easier. Next week will be their last duties 'cos after the school half term they will be hanging up their windlasses for this year.
At Hunts lock, I came across something never witnessed before. A rope lay loosely dangling across both bottom gates. I heard some laughter from Ian and the volunteer and a skipping rope was mentioned. It wasn't until I had descended and bottom gates opened that I noticed the rope was now stretched tightly between the open gates. Baffled I asked why? This was the lockies method of closing the far gate. Quite innovative. Saved walking around or jumping the gap.
Still not much progress made on the new Fradley Marina.
That sunken boat still here! 6 weeks since I first showed a photo. I wonder if it will still be there when we come past next year?
10.30 am and we had made it to Alrewas. No point in stopping although this was where we had planned to moor. Unfortunately, a boat just left the waterpoint and beat us to the lock.
Alrewas river section, although showing green boards, certainly had a flow on it. Much higher than when we came upstream in September and what was also very noticeable was the amount of water in the canal. It wasn't until I realised I had to duck under two bridges normally a good height that it dawned on me.
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| Wychnor lock and here we lock down from the river onto the canal |
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| Water levels up. |
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| Still a good flow on the River Dove |
In the end, we stopped in Willington. Tomorrow rain is forecast so an even earlier start is planned.
And wildlife,
2 comments:
I was interested to read about the rope trick at the lock, Irene. Due to my knee problems this year, I had to find a way to make life easier at narrow locks and have been using a similar method to close the bottom gates saving one walk round the locks. I have no faith in the strength of my knee any longer, so have had to give up stepping across. Jennie
Hi Jennie, sorry to hear your knee is making life difficult and I fully agree about trying anything to make life easier. I had thought about hooking the boat hook over the rails but keep forgetting to take it with me. This will have to wait now until we return to single locks next year. Xxx
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